Jonas Grumby
Jonas, the "Pirate King", was the first Regent of the united Jeweled Cities. Appearance He was tall and dark skinned, with a broad chest. His eyes were a brilliant copper color, hinting at some odd ancestry. His hair was dark, tending towards blue- a Crimar trait. It went stark white with the slightest blue streaks at an early age. Tales said that, as a young man, he was dragged into the depths by a squid but fought free. The shock of near death turned his hair white overnight. His face was tattooed along the right eye, showing his mother’s family. He favored silk breeches and vest with mid-thigh sharkskin boots. He wore a wide-brimmed hat thick with feathers. Early life His mother was a sailor and his father a subsistence beach-comber. He was born on the pirate ship Sunset, but made his home in the city of Pearl. He rose to command through his discerning nature, good fortune, and keen negotiating skills. In his later life, he parlayed his wealth into control of most of the intra-city trading and built up Pearl as the shipping capital. Along his rise to power, he gathered a cadre of close friends and associates. Rule In 336, Jonas persuaded the leading captains of the Tangarotha Archipelago to adopt a single flag, and recognise a council of senior captains and persons of authority. The Council’s structure worked. Kelp-olive oil production reached great levels in 340. Numerous trade missions were launched. The Coral Skipper, Jonas’ vessel, became known as their flagship, with Pauly Feather’s White Osprey and the Blue Monkey’s the Gambler sailing along side. Above all, the Council worked hard to promote peace, non-violence, and free trade. It became a mantra amongst the Jeweled Cities’ leadership that profit comes from the free exchange of goods. Every diplomatic effort they made was along those lines. Some might have seen that as suspect, given they had the largest standing Navy at the time, and were not sharing their ocean-going ship building techniques yet. Perhaps the most significant promotion of this idea happened at the Central Sea Conference in 355. There, Jonas made contact with the people of Raaneka, forging a friendship that lasted for decades. Raaneka assisted in training the Islander military, and Anguri Adite was fostered there. She went on to become ruler of Raaneka decades later. An agreement with the lizardfolk of Scla’ca for a lumber for oil trade allowed for an increase in their navy. It also included a large docking facility in their port city. Another with the Alydaxian lizards for kelp-olive oil for their special metal Ordinarium. Jonas made an agreement with the Union of the Northwest for a trade port in Ryazen Bay was signed, with ocean patrolling agreements and exchange of precious jewels for construction quality stone and lumber. This was the first agreement of its kind, and would herald later, greater efforts. They built up the largest navy in the Sea of the Golden Sun with all of this influx of needed materials. In 367, Jonas handed over rule to his daughter Amber. Some speculate Amber used the militia, whom she trained, to force her father out. Others say that a gift of a magical toy ship from the Blazing Avatar consumed his attention. In any case, Jonas Grumby did move on to Chancellorship of the Nautical Academy upon his retirement. Retirement At the Cantus Sai in 366 Jonas decided to leave the Jewelled Cities and travel as a teacher with the Blazing Temple monk Paco Çimar Guzman and his young charges Greta Cardion Divinorum and Shvedrishti. After this he was not heard from again in AQUA. At the Jewelled Cities 50th Anniversary in 386, a boy arrived, brought to the islands by a mysterious pair of sailors, who turned out to be Jonas's son Tumberink, born during his travels to a Guilder woman. Tumberink was able to shed some light on Jonas's activities after he parted from Paco. :“Dad left Paco and the girls because of the war with the Salterri. He had heard Amber was bringing the Jeweled Cities fleet into the fight and couldn’t resist. Paco never supported the war, so he didn’t tell the monk when he slipped away. :He used to tell me that he watched the battle from a high point near the beach. He was never prouder of his people or his daughter that day with the tactics and skill they showed. But the land battle was chaotic, and he wound up fleeing with the camp followers as the battlefront shifted. He was in his late 70s, so running was hardly an option. :He caught the Pusdeath from those close quarters. It was horrible. He was trapped in Grizzland when the quarantine fell, and wound up in a small village along the Cracked Shell coast. He isn’t sure how he got there, though. The Pusdeath didn’t kill him, but the high fevers and seizures permanently damaged his memory. He had them on and off until the day he died. :He had me with a widow who was taking care of him. She died in childbirth, I was told. Dad and I moved around a lot. I think he was trying to make sense of the past he lost. :I don’t really remember how I ended up in the rowboat with Marius and Fiassa. I remember dad’s sea trunk and sleeping on it a lot. I asked them later on, and they said he died saving me from a sea monster, battling it to the death like the ancient heroes of old. But that was probably just to help me feel better about it.” :: Apotheosis Some witnesses at the confrontation in 400 between Greta and First Brother Adam at the Blazing Temple claim that at the culmination of their duel, Jonas and his ship, crewed by kings, appeared one last time at Greta's call, to escort Adam to the spirit realm. Category:Rulers Category:Characters Category:Islanders Category:Characters of Telluris Category:Rulers of Telluris